Refereeing crews announced for Eurocup Finals

The 2016 Eurocup Finals between Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul and Strasbourg will be in the hands of veteran refereeing crews with experience at the very top of the sport. Euroleague Basketball has announced the two crews of three referees each that will officiate the two games to decide a new Eurocup champion. Game 1 of the will be played at Strasbourg’s home court on Friday, April 22 with Fernando Rocha of Portugal serving as the Crew Chief and working together with Sasa Pukl of Slovenia and Emilio Perez Pizarro of Spain. The referring trio for Game 2 in Istanbul on Wednesday, April 22 will have Christos Christodoulou of Greece as Crew Chief alongside Carmelo Paternico of Italy and Piotr Pastusiak of Poland.

Rocha and Pukl are officiating the Eurocup Finals for the second season in a row. For Rocha, this will be the fifth time working the Eurocup Finals, in addition to his two Euroleague Final Fours. Pukl and Christodoulou have worked the Euroleague Final Four in the past four times each. Among their many other international assignments, Pukl and Rocha have previously worked both Olympic Games and World Cup men's tournaments. Christodoulou and Pastusiak have both been selected as referees for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, while Pukl, Paternico, Rocha and Perez Pizarro are slated to work the Olympic men's qualifying tournaments. Pastusiak, Paternico and Perez Pizzaro have been selected for their first Euroleague Basketball competition finals.